


A New Start

by Jathis



Series: The Steward and the Sorcerer [29]
Category: Sofia the First (Cartoon)
Genre: Blood, Corvids, Familiars, Gen, Moving On, Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28217937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jathis/pseuds/Jathis
Summary: A Familiar can be changed for another, if the right things are found and done
Series: The Steward and the Sorcerer [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091021
Kudos: 6





	A New Start

The raven watched through the bars of his cage as the black and white bird flew towards him. He huffed, clacking his beak together to try and warn her off. The magpie ignored him, holding onto the chain that held the cage up and kept her just out of his reach.

“What do you want, goody-goody?” Wormwood demanded.

“You know what I came here for,” the magpie countered.

The raven snorted, ruffling his feathers before turning his back on her. “I don’t have to give you anything. Besides, it would cut my life short. Whyever would I want to do that?”

“Because you know it’s wrong of you to hold onto it,” Rosemary said. “You renounced him and declared yourself Vor’s. You’re no longer connected to him. It’s not right to keep hold of his lifeline.”

“And what if I keep it, hm? What would you do if I refused to let you have it? You’d just die a magpie while I stayed his Familiar.”

“His Familiar locked away in a cage.”

“But I would still live as long as he did,” Wormwood said with a smirk. “And wouldn’t that just be the best bit of revenge? Ensuring that bungler could never have another Familiar? He would always remember that his Familiar was locked in a cage!”

Rosemary looked down at the raven, shaking her head. “How could you hate your Master so much?”

“Because all he had to do was use the Medusa Stone!” Wormwood snapped. He spread his wings out in his frustration. “I could have been the Familiar to a king! Everyone would bow to me! But that goody-goody decided he had grown used to the taste of Roland’s shoes on his tongue and threw away our chance! He was supposed to make me great.”

“A Familiar is supposed to work with their Master. He wasn’t supposed to work for your own goals and wishes. You should have been helping him become great.”

“In a way I have, haven’t I?” he spat. “They call him Cedric the Great because he helped that interfering princess stop Vor. He even helped her out of that blasted amulet. She should have stayed in there.”

Rosemary tilted her head as she regarded the bitter raven. She shook her head with a sigh. “Surely you must have some love left for Cedric. You were Bonded at school.”

“And my life went downhill after that!”

“Would you have rather ended up like Diablo?”

Wormwood whirled around and attempted to jab at the magpie through the bars of his cage. He growled in his frustration, glaring up at her. “What do you know of Diablo?”

“Every Corvid knows about Diablo. He served his Mistress and obeyed her but because she had gone down the path of evil in the end he was turned to stone for his wickedness.” Rosemary stopped for a moment, fixing some of the feathers in her left wing. “Would you rather Cedric be dead and you turned to stone like Diablo and his Mistress?”

“...you’re not some random chick found in the grass.”

“No, I was left there on purpose,” she agreed. “I need you to let me complete that purpose. He deserves a Familiar who will stand by him. Even you know that.”

Wormwood was quiet. The raven hunched into himself, turning away to avoid looking at the magpie. The Law of Familiars was taught to every potential animal since their birth. They shared their lives with the magic users Bonded to them and for a gift of a longer life they were meant to be loyal and true. They lived as long as they were never mortally wounded and passed when their Masters did.

The Bond was sealed with a small gemstone shaped into a perfect sphere. It was the Familiar’s duty to keep the sphere safe to maintain their Bond. It was incredibly rare but a Bonding sphere could be passed on to another Familiar.

That was what Rosemary was after.

It would serve her and Cedric right if he refused to tell her where he had hidden it. Why should he do anything for the man who had ruined his chance at fame and a dynasty? That bungler! All he had to do was listen to him and they would be rulers! He had no reason to show any kindness towards the sorcerer.

And yet…

“There’s a small nest hidden up in the rafters of the tower. Deep in one of the dark corners,” he said. “You’ll find the sphere in there.” He refused to look up until he heard the magpie take off, leaving him alone once more. “...stupid goody-goody,” he grumbled to himself.

***

Cedric was looking through one of his grimoires when he heard Rosemary’s chattering call above. The sorcerer blinked and looked up, watching as the magpie came down from the rafters a little more clumsy than was usual for her. He hoped that she had not managed to hurt herself up there.

“You’ve never gone that far up before,” he noted. He held up his hand, letting the bird land on his arm. “What is that?” he asked, frowning when he saw something tucked under one of her wings. Rosemary spread said wing, dropping the object onto his book.

They both looked down at the small sphere made out of pure hematite. “...how did you find this?” Cedric whispered. He hesitated to touch the sphere, his fingers hovering above it. “Wormwood was the one who hid it away.”

Rosemary tapped the stone with her beak and looked at him again.

“I see…” Cedric picked the sphere up in his left hand and held it in his palm. He rolled it around briefly before setting it back down, turning to the magpie. “You wish to Bond with me?” he asked.

Rosemary answered with a gentle peck to the end of his nose.

The sorcerer laughed softly, nodding his head as he used his wand to produce a needle. He gave it to Rosemary, waiting until she had gotten a good hold on it with her beak. He held out his ring finger on his left hand and held still as she used the needle to prick the end of it. He let a drop of his blood fall onto the sphere before putting it into his mouth, sucking on the small wound briefly before taking the needle from Rosemary.

The magpie fluttered down to stand beside the sphere. She held out her left leg and let Cedric prick her to draw blood. She let a drop fall onto the sphere before fluttering back onto his shoulder.

Cedric covered the sphere with one cupped hand and started to chant under his breath. He still remembered the words from when he was a student at Hexley Hall, when Wormwood had done this with him. He could feel warmth starting to radiate from the sphere and he closed his eyes, focusing on himself and Rosemary.

She covered her eyes with a wing when there was a burst of light between his fingers. When she lowered her wing she blinked, tilting her head as Cedric slowly opened his own eyes and moved his hand.

A sphere made out of pure rhodochrosite sat where the one of hematite had once been.

“It’s done,” he whispered, looking at the changed sphere in awe. “It really worked, Rosemary.”

The magpie happily nuzzled under his chin, chattering as the sorcerer kissed the top of her head and stroked her feathers. Later she could take the Bonding sphere and hide it away but for now she enjoyed being a proper Familiar.


End file.
